Games That Spelled Disaster for Major Franchises

Keeping gamers interested for years is certainly a tough task especially with the introduction of new gaming technologies and gadgets each day. Nevertheless, this clearly doesn’t mean there is any dearth of long time running game franchises with millions of fans across the globe. From Super Mario to Call of Duty games, there are several franchises that have kept gamers wanting more for nearly over 2-3 decades. However, keeping longtime fans interested and satiated is much easier said than done as there often come titles that are horribly disappointing. So, we have made a short list of such bad titles from respected and loved franchises that only enraged gamers regardless of their sales or popularity.

Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil series is known as a pioneer of the action based survival horror games. It’s first titles might look primitive by today’s standards, but were far better than anything that was involved in Resident Evil 6. Despite its graphical superiority, RE6’s poor story, optimization issues, messed up character development, horrible camera and morose gameplay all pretty much buried the series for good. This also forced developer to take a totally different course with Resident Evil 7 that has thankfully managed to regain lost respect by fans.

Reboots aren’t always what longtime fans ask for and especially when a reboot does some serious changes to an original idea. Devil May Cry series also suffered the same bad reboot shenanigans when Capcom decided to update the game in 2013. The worst offence they did was change the protagonist’s look from the cheesy yet lovably stylish Dante to an angsty teen who is clearly at a loss for words whenever he’s patronized by an enemy (what a disappointment). While the gameplay is still like older games, the absence of stylized action caused a lot of uproar among fans. We’re only hoping Capcom would bring back the original developers and redeem themselves with the next title.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

With so much potential already shown in the 16-bit era, Sonic the Hedgehog was a title that next-gen console owners wanted badly. Finally, in 2006 their wishes came true with ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ for Xbox 360. The only problem, the game was poorly developed and suffered some awful optimization issues. Not to mention the creepy, borderline bestiality portraying cutscenes along with one of the most boring control scheme to have ever been featured in an Xbox 360 title. This not only was the worst games in the series, but pretty much buried the chances of any new games popping up soon.

Contra: Legacy of War

Handing a best seller to new developers is not a smart move as we’ve already seen with how DMC turned out. But this was a mistake also made by Konami, who literally killed off their legendary Contra series. The new changes such as use of 3d graphics and isometric perspective, upset a lot of fans and pretty much killed off the run-n-gun gaming genre (Metal Slug is certainly an exception). Critics were furious at developers for not staying true to the Contra lore or legacy, especially comparing the dull 3d graphics with older yet vibrant 2d backgrounds in older games.

Another survival horror title that showed a lot of promise with its second game, unfortunately crashed and failed to keep up with fan expectations when it’s next gen title Dino Crisis 3 was release for the original Xbox. Dino Crisis 2 was a step forward from the 1st game, with more emphasis on action rather than puzzles, along with a vast array of weapons and branching stories. Dino Crisis 3, despite its advantage of an Xbox release couldn’t push the gameplay further and features a story that will confuse older players. Topping off the atrocities is the awkward camera that failed to keep up with the player character’s fast movements.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

While not a lot of people consider ‘Revelations’ to be a bad game, but it clearly didn’t fulfil a lot of promises as the trailers suggested. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is the final game featuring’ Ezio Auditore’ that takes place in Florence during the renaissance. Although developers brought several new and exciting gameplay additions, the repetitive missions and a poor conclusion to the ‘Auditore’ story left a lot of gamers dissatisfied and wanting more answers. So much for putting ‘Revelations’ in the title!

Although the titles listed above aren’t all horrible games if you think about it. Nonetheless, their inferior gameplay and development compared to others in the series alienated old fans and failed to launch the series in a positive direction. If you feel there are some major disappointments that we failed to mention, please feel free to add your suggestions in comments.

Author: Akshay PeterAkshay Luke Peters is a writer and blogger for Systweak Software. He likes to write about off-beat topics and technological awareness. He is also part musician who likes to explore the future of technology in entertainment and popular media.

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